Mechanism for the formation of orderly groups of cigarettes



April 1, 1969 MECHANISM? Filed Jan. 21, 1956 A SERQIAGNQLLI" 3,435,940

OR THE FORMATION OF oRnEaw-gnous OF CIGARETTES 1 Sheefi' or's INVENTOR 'ARIOSTO SERAGNOLI ATTORN EY 5 .Aprll 1, 1969 3,435,940 MECHANI SM FOR THE FORMATION OF ORDERLY GROUPS OF GIGARBTTES ATSERAGNOLI Sheet Filed Jan. 21, 1966 Ker/1 INVENTOR ARIOSTO SERAGNOU AT R YS April 1, 1969 A. SERAGNOLI 3,435,940 I MECHANISM FOR THBFORMAT-ION OF O'RDERLY GROUPS OF CIGARETTES" Filed Jan.: 21'; 1966' Sheet 4 0&5

N g mvmony ARIOSTO SERAGNOLI ATTORNEYS April;1",1969," SRAGNL1 $435,940

' MECHANISM FOR THE FORMATION OF O-RDERLYGROUPS 0F CIGAIRE'IITES Filed Jan. 21. 1966 7 Sheet 5 of 5 INVENT OR ARIOSTO SERAGNOLI ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,435,940 MECHANISM FOR THE FORMATION OF ORDERLY GROUPS OF CIGARETTES Ariosto Seragnoli, Via Bellinzona 31, Bologna, Italy Filed Jan. 21, 1966, Ser. No. 522,307 Claims priority, application Italy, Jan. 26, 1965, 1 580/65 Int. Cl. B65b 19/04, /44; B65g 47/82 I US. Cl. 198-24 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates generally to the building up of groups or sets of cigarettes to be packed, as for instance, the usual twenty cigarette packets.

These packets comprise three superposed layers of cigarettes, the external layers each comprising seven cigarettes and the intermediate layer comprising six cigarettes, offset in respect of the cigarettes forming the external layers and sandwiched between said external layers.

The invention will be described according to an embodiment for building up groups or sets of twenty cigarettes arranged in three layers, to be packed. It will be, however, apparent that this embodiment lends itself also to the formation of groups of cigarettes having different numbers of layers and different numbers of cigarettes for each layer.

Mechanisms are known in the art for distributing cigarettes in ordered groups from a container, Within which the cigarettes are charged in a side-by-side position. Groups of cigarettes disposed side-by-side are taken from the container, according to a prefixed arrangement and number, said groups being adapted to be successively packed in the form of cigarette packets.

None of the known mechanisms lends itself to the building up of groups of cigarettes in a quick sequence, since the building up of each group is obtained according to cycles, in each of which a long travel of the cigarettes takes place. Now, since the cigarettes advance only under the action of the gravity force, it requires a remarkable time duration to accomplish the run, this limiting the group formation speed.

The object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism to build up groups of cigarettes, in which the path length of the cigarettes is reduced to a minimum, yet formation speed of the cigarette groups is a maximum.

The method concerned with this invention resides in preparing separately and in separate positions, the layers forming the set of cigarettes, the separate positions each being part of a station for the partial building up of the group.

The above-mentioned layers are then transferred into suitable spaces of a conveyor, said spaces passing and stopping simultaneously at said stations, according to a sequence of movements.

3,435,940 Patented Apr. 1, 1969 At each stop or halt, each of said spaces receives a layer of cigarettes and precisely, in the current case of the building up of groups of twenty cigarettes, each space in passing along the three stations successively receives, first the lower layer comprising seven cigarettes, then the intermediate layer containing six cigarettes, and at last the upper layer containing seven cigarettes, by which the twenty cigarettes group containing the cigarettes orderly arranged, is complete, and is further transferred to an ejection station from the conveyor effecting the transfer to a packing machine.

The invention will be described in the following description with reference to the drawings, which forms an integral part of the invention, according to a preferred exemplary and non-limiting embodiment.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section of the mechanism taken along the line 1-1 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section taken along the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIGURES 3 and 4 are vertical sections; respectively along lines 3-3 and 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section corresponding to FIG. 1 that along showing an alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 are perspective views of several details of the mechanism, according to several alternative embodiments.

Throughout the various drawings, similar parts are characterised by the same reference numerals or symbols.

In the drawings, reference character A refers generally to a device for charging and supplying the cigarettes to the building up mechanism for groups: of twenty cigarettes; reference character B indicates generally a chain conveyor, having an intermittent motion; reference characters C, D, E respectively indicate three stations in which, through successive steps, the cigarette groups are formed, and reference character F indicates a transfer station for the groups of cigarettes from the building up mechanisms, for the groups themselves to a packing machine.

The charging-supplying or feeding device comprises a hopper 21, flared towards the top, of a rectangular crosssection, closed on the back face 22 and on the sides 23 and covered in front by a transparent movable plate 24, said hopper being of the type whichis usually employed with the machines for building up groups of cigarettes. Within said hopper, the cigarettes 25 are charged from the top, through conventional means which form no part of the present invention and, therefore, are not described here. The cigarettes are arranged sidewise in such a way that their axes are substantially at right angles with the back face 22.

In its lower portion, the hopper 21 is divided into twenty chute channels 26, whose axes .are substantially vertical. Said channels are formed by fixed side banks or edges 27, by fixed intermediate edges 28 and by extension 22' of the back face 22 of the hopper. The channels are covered in front by a movable transparent plate 24', except in the lowermost portion, where they are closed by a front cover 29. In cross-section, said channels have a length and a width, respectively slightly in excess of the length and diameter of the cigarettes, so that the cigarettes are going down along said channels according to a side-by-side relation, the axes of the cigarette being which are substantially perpendicular to the back faces 22 and therefore horizontal. At the mouth of the channels towards the top, small prismatic shafts 30 are arranged, each of a polygonal and, in any case, a non-circular cross-section with the axis of each being normal to the back face 22 of the hopper 21. The shafts are also rotatable within fixed supports, attached to the bottom of back face 22 itself andto a front cross member 54.

Said small shafts 30 are continuously made to oscillate about their respective axis by a control mechanism of a well known and usual type, for instance by means of a rack 55 provided with a reciprocating motion and meshing with gears 56 arranged on each of the small shafts 30.

The space or gap remaining between each adjacent pair of said small shafts during the oscillating motion equals the diameter of the cigarettes. Therefore, the cigarettes of the layer lying immediately above the small shafts 30 are caused, due to the oscillation of the shafts and by the movements that the shafts impart to the cigarettes through their non-circular contour, to arrange themselves and descend in an orderly side-by-side relation within the channels 26.

Furthermore, through their oscillation, and always due to their non-circular contour or outline, said oscillating small shafts 30 keep all the cigarettes 25 overlying them in a slight vibrating condition, so that they bridge across the walls 23 of the hopper 21 and are caused to descend regularly into the hopper 21, the cigarettes remaining always parallel to each other and substantially perpendicular to the back face 22.

The channels 26 are arranged in three groupings. The lower ends of the channels of each grouping terminate respectively at the stations C, D and E, intended for the building up of the cigarette layers.

A grouping of seven channels 26 correspond to each of the stations C and E and to the station D a grouping of six channels 26 corresponds to the station D.

In each grouping of channels, the lower ends 31 of the intermediate partition walls defining the channels, are thinned in the form of the blade of a knife, so that the distance between the adjacent cigarettes is reduced to a minimum at the exit of the channels into the stations C, D and B. Each grouping opens into a fiat bottom 32, above which the ends 31 of the partitions 28 stop, at about a height corresponding to the diameter of the cigarettes. The width of the bottom 32 is equal to the width occupied by the corresponding layer of cigarettes arranged side-by-side (see FIG. 4). The bottom 32 of each grouping of channels is arranged at an elevation comparative to the level that the layer cigarettes will be when inserted into the finished cigarette package (see FIGURES 1 and 4).

Therefore, the bottoms are arranged at increasing heights, starting from the bottom at station C up to the top at station B (see FIG. 4). The back face 22 and the front side 29 have, at the bottom, back and front windows 33 and 34, respectively, whose width is equal to that of the bottom 32 and whose height above the bottom 32 is equal to the diameter of the cigarettes.

At the back window, pushing heads 50C, 50D and 50B, to be more fully explained hereinafter, are provided which correspond to each station C, D and B, respectively.

The front window 34 has a flared mouth to facilitate the reception of the cigarettes and forms a slightly tapered conduit (see FIG. 2) which carries, at the upper side, a light carriage spring 35.

At the exit, in the outward direction of the stations D and E, the bottoms of the windows extend to the outside and corresponding thin bearing blades 36, 36' which project somewhat from the mouth window 34.

The conveyor B, which runs along the front side of the mouths 34, comprises a continuous chain 37 extended about two gear wheels 38, 39, one being a driving wheel and the other is an idler wheel. The wheels are supported by shafts which are rotatably mounted within bearings (not shown) fixed to the base of the machine. Angle plates 40 having a bottom 41 and a side member 42 are affixed to the chain links at regular intervals. The sides 42 are of a height approximately equal to the thickness of the three layers of superposed cigarettes, the cigarettes of the intermediate layer being interleaved between the cigarettes of the external layers. At a location halfway between the top and bottom of side members 42, half the height, thickening portions 43 are provided which project from both sides thereof a distance approximately equal to half the diameter of the cigarettes.

Furthermore, side members 42 are interrupted at 42, as seen in FIG. 3, in order to avoid intereference with the tangs 36, 36' as the angle plates 40 move past the mouths 34.

The plates 40, in the upper branch of the chain, are aligned behind one another to form containers 47 which comprises the bottom 41 and side members 42 of two adjacent plates. Also, side members 42 are notched at the center as at 44 in order to accommodate to a stationary containment element 45, which extends from station D to a station F covering the space above the articles in posttion 25b housed within the containers. Below the lower edge of containment element 45, leaves, below its lower edge, a free space having a height suflicient to accommodate two and thereafter all three of the cigarette layers (see FIG. 1).

At the side of the conveyor furtherest from the mouths 34, a stationary external guide 46 is provided which limits the outward movement of the cigarettes and insuring that they are not pushed out of the containers 47.

At the rear of the flat bottoms 32, a pushing member 48 is provided and made to reciprocate in the direction as shown by the arrow 49. The pusher is provided with three pushing heads 50C, 50D and 50E, each of which is disposed at the level of the back window 33 of corresponding station, and having a cross section slightly smaller than that of the windows 33, 34. The pusher 48 travels from the position of FIG. 2 to an extreme position of travel, in which the ends of the heads 50 reach the outer end of the mouths 34 a cigarette layer is thereby moved ahead pushing in front of itself by the pusher 48 during its travel from a position 25a on the bottom 32 to a position 25b at which the cigarette layer is transferred into the container 47.

Within the space between the mouths 34 and as an extension thereof stationary internal guides are provided, which have the function of offering a side support 53, thereby insuring along with the external guide 46, that of the cigarettes are delivered only to the containers 47.

The conveyor B and the pusher 48 are moved intermittently and in synchronism between one another by conventional means not illustrated, so that they effect operating cycles having the same duration.

In each working cycle the conveyor B is advanced a distance equal to the width of a container 47. As the conveyor stops, each of three different containers 47, as illustrated in FIG. 1, are respectively positioned in front of the mouths 34 of the stations C, D, E. During the conveyor pauses, the pusher 48 is moved from the position illustrated in FIG. 2 to its extreme position and back again. Thereafter, it remains stationary while the conveyor B is successively advanced.

In its intermittent motion, the conveyor B brings each container 47 to stop successively in front of the mouths 34 of each of the stations C, D and E, at which each container receives a cigarette layer, so that at station E, the twenty-cigarette group is completed (see FIG. 1). The conveyor B then causes the containers 47 to stop in a sequence at an ejection station F. Here, the side guides 46 and 53 are notched so that for an ejector 51, moving in the direction of the arrow 52, said ejector enters the containers 47 at each halt of the conveyor and pushes the cigarettes from the position 25b to a position 25c, where a catching member of a packing machine, not shown, is provided.

The operating mode of the mechanism is as follows: the cigarettes, arranged side-by-side within hopper 21, are kept in a vibrating condition by the movement of the small shafts 30 so that they are made to descend into the channels 26 and thereafter come to rest upon the bottoms 32 of the stations C, D, E in a side-by-side relation and in a quantity of either six or seven. The conveyor, as it moves intermittent brings by an empty container 47 to stop in front of the mouth 34 at station C, another container, already having received at C the lower layer of cigarettes, to stop in front of the mouth 34 at stations D and E are maintained at the bottom mouth in succession, at C and D, the lower and intermediate layer of cigarettes, to stop in front of the mouth 34 at E.

During said pause or halt, the pusher 48 eifects a complete stroke in a forward direction, bringing the cigarettes from the position 25a to the position 25]) within the containers. It then retracts to its starting position of FIG. 2, whereby a new layer of cigarettes is allowed to fall into position 25a at each station C, D and B. As the cigarettes are moved through the mouths 34 under the push exerted by the heads 50, they are braked by the resilient pressure of the small spring 35, which prevents irregular movements of the cigarettes. Furthermore, the cigarettes at stations D and E are maintained at the bottom mouth of the containers by the supporting blades 36, 36 which facilitate their entry into the containers, above the previously introduced cigarette layers.

At each stop of the conveyor, the ejector 51 advances into the container 47 which is directly in front of it, and pushes the complete set of cigarettes into position 250 towards the catching members of the packing machine, then recedes, so releasing the chain.

When the pusher 48 has retracted to its position of FIG. 2, the conveyor advances by a step, bringing forward all the containers, and the process is repeated as described above.

In FIG. 5, an alternative embodiment of the invention is represented, in which the conveyor B is composed of a horizontally disposed drum. All the other elements, except the obvious adptations, are the same as already discussed for the previously described embodiment, the mode of operation mode is the same.

In FIG. 6, an alternative embodiment of the container 47 is illustrated, wherein bottom 41 is provided with a pair of side members 42 each having a projection 43 thereon.

In FIG. 7, another alternative embodiment of the container 47 is represented, wherein the container 22 is covered by plates 45 so that from station E to the end in the direction of conveyor travel, the containment element 45 is no longer necessary.

Finally, in FIG. 8, a further alternative embodiment is illustrated of a container 47 covered as in FIG. 7, by plate 45 except that an upper slit 54, is provided in the plates through which a supporting arm of ejector 51 may pass, in a well known manner, when the filled plates reach station F. Such an ejector would not need to return to its starting position, since it could be carried, for example, by a continuous chain, which passes above the containers at station F.

Further-more, it can be seen that the conveyor may be of any type, as for example, of the plate type wherein the plates are guided in some desired manner. The conveyor may also be of the roundabout type. In addition, the windows or mouths 34 and the beaming blades 36, 36' may be shaped in any desired manner in order to facili tate the movement of the cigarettes. The number of stations to be used for building up the cigarette groups can be other than three so long as at least two stations are existing. The number of cigarettes grouped may be other than twenty and there may be more than one container element 45 also, between one building up station and another any desired number of steps of the conveyor element may be employed the heads 50 of the pusher 48 could be separately driven by an equal number of pusher-s.

Having described the invention with reference to preferred embodiments, it will apparent to the workers in the art that the invention itself can be practiced accord ing to different alternative embodiments. It is intended "by the above description and by the enclosed claims to cover all the embodiments which fall within the spirit and the scope of the invention, relating to the building up of groups or sets of cigarettes in the number of twenty, in three layers or in any desired number, or in at least two layers.

Iclaim:

1. A mechanism for the formation of orderly groups of cigarettes constituted of orderly superposed layers of cigarettes including a plurality of stations for the formation of distinct layers of cigarettes, means for conducting the cigarettes to said stations, container means for receiving said groups of cigarettes, first pusher means for pushing a layer of cigarettes at a time into said containers, conveyor means for intermittently displacing said containers in an operative direction past said stations, and second pusher means for transferring said groups of cigarettes from said containers towards a packaging machine, and wherein, according to the improvement, each of said stations comprises means defining a supporting surface for the cigarettes, said supporting surfaces being arranged in consecutive order in said operative direction along said conveyor means laterally offset thereto, said supporting surfaces being arranged at different levels with respect to each other increasing in said consecutive order, the level difference between next. among said supporting surfaces corresponding at least to the thickness of a cigarette, and wherein said first pusher means are arranged at a level corresponding to the level of said supporting surfaces and adapted to sweep the respective of said supporting surfaces to transfer the layer of cigarettes collected on said supporting surface onto a corresponding of said containers, said containers having open sides to receive sideways the respective layer of cigarettes transferred from the respective of said supporting surface, said containers having a bottom arranged on said conveyor means at a level corresponding to the lowermost level of said supporting surfaces.

2. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said means for conducting the cigarettes to said stations comprise a hopper above said supporting surfaces, groups of channels leading from said hopper to said supporting surfaces, the channels having a substantially rectangular cross-section with the long side of the rectangle extending transverse to said operative direction and having a length corresponding to the length of a cigarette and with a short side of the rectangle extending parallel to said operative direction and having a length corresponding to the thickness of said cigarette the channels of each of said groups of channels terminating with the lower ends thereof at a distance from said supporting surface substantially corresponding to the thickness of a cigarette, thereby to form at each station a window delimited by the respective of said supporting surfaces and the: nearby ends of the channels of the respective of said groups of channels, the channels of each of said groups of channels diverging from each other in the direction from said supporting surfaces towards said hopper thereby to define near said hopper partition spaces between said channels greater than the partition spaces between said channels near said supporting surfaces and means for imparting vibration to at least a limited number of cigarettes at a time in said hopper near said channels.

3. A mechanism according to claim 2, wherein said means for imparting vibration comprise above each of said partition spaces near the upper ends of said channels and in said hopper a rota-ting shaft extending substantially parallel to said long side of the rectangular cross-section of the channels, said shaft having a polyhedral contour in contact with the contiguous cigarettes.

4. A mechanism according to claim 2, wherein each of said group of channels has at the lower end thereof an exit mouth having a bottom surface which is flush with the respective of said supporting surfaces, for guiding the layer of cigarettes when transferred from said respec- 7 tive supporting surface to the respective of said containers, at least some of said exit mouths having small springs of the tang type for braking the transferring motion of said cigarettes from said supporting surface to said container and preventing a return movement of cigarettes.

5. A mechanism according to claim 4, wherein said bottom surface of some of said mouths have in extension of said bottom surface a thin guiding blade for the lower edge of the cigarette layers at the entrance into the containers.

6. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said containers comprise each a bottom portion and side walls, each of said side walls having a notch cut inwardly, down to a distance, from the bottom, which is equal at the most to the diameter of the cigarettes, and wherein the mechanism comprises further above the container a stationary containment member arranged to pass into said notches and whose lower edge is spaced from said bottom portion for a distance corresponding to at least one diameter of the cigarettes.

7. A mechanism according to claim 6, foreseen for building up groups of twenty cigarettes in layers having seven-six-seven cigarettes each, wherein said side walls of the containers have, at half the height, inwardly directed projections, which reduce the space therebetween in the measure corresponding to the diameter of a cigarette.

8. A mechanism according to claim 6, wherein said containers comprise further a top wall connecting the upper edges of said side walls thereby defining with said bottom portion a tubular shape of said containers, said top wall having an opening in register with said notches thereby to allow passage of said stationary containment member.

9. A mechanism according to claim 8, wherein said top wall has a slit parallel to said side walls to allow passage therethrough of a cigarette ejecting member.

10. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said conveyor means is a conveyor with rectilinear operative portions.

11. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said conveyor means is a drum supporting said container means on the periphery thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,647,265 11/1927 Bronander 53- 150 1,993,619 3/1935 Neff 53 l5'1 2,144,547 1/1939 Robinson 198189 RICHARD E. AEGERTER, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

